When Bob Amsden learned in September that the Teamsters’ executive board had declined to endorse Kamala Harris for president, he summed up his reaction with a single word: anger.
That anger had a history. The 72-year-old retired truck driver had joined Teamsters Local 200 in Milwaukee in 1973, following in the footsteps of his father. Only several years into his retirement he learned that his pension — along with those of some 250,000 Teamsters — was threatened with cuts of up to 60%. He joined his fellow Teamsters in a movement to save their pensions, making dozens of trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with congressmen during the Trump Administration. “Republicans totally turned their backs on us,” he said. “They would give us nothing but lip service.”
